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“TTB. Super Sorry. This is not from this TTB. It’s from the last TTB. Yikes. Good thing it’s a dark tea. Loose Leaf: Pretty typical dusty look, browns, with a mix of leaves and some buds. Not much...” Read full tasting note
“Got my first order from EOT today and gave this one a try. It’s not too bad! I can definitely tell this is quality leaf material, and I think it has great potential. It must have seen mostly dry...” Read full tasting note
“5.3g in a 90 mL hongni pot. wet leaf aroma of grape jam, smoke, toast, and wood. 1st: honeyed taste. edge with some astrignency and malty taste like oversteeped hongcha. 2nd: not strong taste, but...” Read full tasting note
Since pressing our 2021 Youle Gaogan cakes, we’ve had quite a few enquiries about other Youle material, and have been on the hunt for some nicely aged cakes.
These were pressed in 2004 by a tea merchant from Yiwu. He collected the raw material from Youle mountain and pressed the cakes in Chang Da Hao’s tea factory, using their wrappers to wrap the cakes. This was quite a common practice at the time for small productions. They were then purchased by a Kunming merchant, who stored them in Kunming until now. The storage has been clean, and although ideally we would have preferred somewhere more humid, it has aged nicely.
From tasting it, it appears to be pure old tree material and displays all the character one would expect from this type of tea. It’s thick, rich, concentrated, has good depth in the mouth and throat and is very vibrant. It has a nice energy and a long concentrated aftertaste with reassuring bitter note creeping in. This has plenty of room still to evolve in years to come.
I can highly recommend this tea. It’s a bargain at this price and even newly made tea of this quality from this area would be much more expensive.
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TTB. Super Sorry. This is not from this TTB. It’s from the last TTB. Yikes. Good thing it’s a dark tea.
Loose Leaf: Pretty typical dusty look, browns, with a mix of leaves and some buds. Not much aroma.
Wet Leaf: Dark greenish brownish. Chopped. Slight muscatel. Old wood.
Flavor: old decaying wood. 1800s house kinda. Kinda tannic, but that’s probably my fault. Overall probably a good one I just don’t do most dark teas very well…
Got my first order from EOT today and gave this one a try. It’s not too bad! I can definitely tell this is quality leaf material, and I think it has great potential. It must have seen mostly dry storage as it is the youngest tasting 2004 tea I’ve had. None of the notes or flavors are off putting, and the mouthfeel is nice with a bit of cha qi. I just don’t think it’s overall my style, at least yet. Great price for the age and quality, but probably won’t be caking this one.
Flavors: Bitter, Fruity, Honey, Sweet
5.3g in a 90 mL hongni pot.
wet leaf aroma of grape jam, smoke, toast, and wood.
1st: honeyed taste. edge with some astrignency and malty taste like oversteeped hongcha. 2nd: not strong taste, but a floral aroma on breath.
3rd: grape jam and smoky.
moves to base steamed/oversteeped young ish sheng taste thereafter. Guess the additional heat retention of the pot did it no favors. Still young and heady in effect, so not too comfortable. Probably will pass on caking this one.
I’m a little bit lost. Is this a sheng pu-erh? Or just an aging “dark” tea? I can’t really tell from EoT’s description, either.
My guess is a sheng. It looked like a shou at first hut after steeping it tasted more of a sheng profile
Although the cake looks very dark for a sheng, you’re right that the steeped leaves appear more like a raw than a ripe. I wasn’t even sure of the cakes’ status as puer, since I did not recognize the large calligraphy on the center of the wrapper. Though I do now see the puer marking twice on the periphery. Nice that you’re enjoying it!
It’s a sheng! This was pressed in 2004, so as unbelievable as it sounds, this is a 20+ year old tea – very normal for the leaf to look so much darker and shou-like with some age on it. Afterall, shou is actually meant to replicate the look/taste of aged sheng ;)